Germany continue to stutter after goalless draw at stubborn Greece

Greece may have surrendered a 2-0 lead to draw with the Netherlands last time out, but confidence was clearly still high following their 1-0 win a week earlier in Augsburg, as it took no more than a minute for Kostas Tsimikas to deliver a peach of a cross for the rising Georgios Masouras, whose header required a brilliant save from Jonas Urbig.

Even so, Germany quickly gained a foothold and the momentum, as Florian Wirtz had an effort deflected over following a mazy run, before Derry Scherhant produced a curling effort from outside the box that Konstantinos Tzolakis clutched at full stretch.

Tzolakis had to be alert again to bat away a Tom Bischof piledriver, but his and Greece’s resistance looked to have been broken in the 32nd minute, when Scherhant squared for Jonathan Burkardt to bundle the ball home, only for VAR to spot a handball in the build-up from Bischof.

Once Scherhant and Wirtz had both seen late chances whistle just past Tzolakis’ posts, Greece had done enough to keep the scores level at half-time, as Germany looked set for a fifth competitive away match in a row to feature two goals or fewer.

The visitors’ dominance looked set to continue when Lennart Karl’s curler from distance was caught by Tzolakis, but despite plenty of pressure, that was the only save the home goalkeeper had to make before the hour mark, while a downward Konstantinos Mavropanos header from a corner was simple for Urbig to deal with.

The scrappy second half continued to be punctuated by fouls and stoppages, but was reignited 15 minutes from time when a delightful Manolis Saliakas cross was headed just over by Masouras.

Germany’s defeat of Serbia before this encounter ended a four-game winless run, but their late attempts to build a winning run lacked creativity, as Wirtz sent an effort sailing over before Philipp Treu sent a dangerous cross over the top on a half-volley.

It’s just two defeats in 16 Nations League matches for Greece, though Ivan Jovanovic’s side continue to struggle for home form, having failed to win five of their last six.

Germany sit third in the group and are on course to miss the Nations League Finals for the fourth time in five editions despite being League A everpresents.

Flashscore Man of the Match: Malick Thiaw (Germany)

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